Best Buy CEO Nearly Halves Stake in Company, Shares Fall

Best Buy Co. Inc.'s shares fell as much as 5 percent on Monday after Chief Executive Hubert Joly cut his stake in the electronics retailer by about 44 percent, two weeks after the company gave a disappointing current-quarter profit forecast.

Joly sold 398,000 shares worth about $12.8 million, leaving him with a 0.16 percent stake in the company, according to a regulatory filing on Friday.

Best Buy spokesman Jeffrey Shelman said on Monday that Joly's sale was "solely related to his desire to diversify his overall personal holdings" and that he had no plans to step down.

Joly's sale is slightly less than "25 percent of his total (Best Buy) holdings when you include options and performance shares," Shelman said.

The electronics retailer said last month that second-quarter profit would be hurt by supply disruptions for some high-margin products after an earthquake in Japan and due to investments in customer service.

The company has been struggling to boost sales as demand for smartphones and PCs continue to fall.

Shares of the company were down about 3 percent at $31.34 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.